Seperti kebanyakan bahasa lain, bahasa Malaysia berhadapan dengan cabaran bahasa Inggeris dan kadar ciptaan perkataan dan terminologi yang terlampau pantas. Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka mengatasi masalah ini dengan meminjam berpuluh puluh terminologi bahasa Inggeris, contohnya teknologi, ekonomi dan ‘anjakan paradigma’, yang terakhir itu antara terminologi kegemaran Anwar Ibrahim semasa beliau masih berkuasa dan belum lagi diterajang bekas Ketua Polis Negara Rahim Noor. Daripada koleksi perkataan pinjaman ini, tidak ada yang lagi pelik dari ‘ide’, yang dipinjam dari ‘idea’. Siapa punya ide memasukkan ayat ini ke dalam bahasa Malaysia hanya orang itu sajalah yang tahu, tetapi apa yang pasti, perkataan ini tidak langsung menggambarkan apa yang dikehendaki. Ia lebih mirip kepada nama warga penduduk Bali seperti Agus, Ketut dan Made.
Satu perkataan yang kurang difahami tetapi sering dituturkan terkandung dalam Rukunegara kita. Walaupun kebanyakan daripada kita, terutamanya murid murid sekolah yang terpaksa membaca ikrar setiap minggu, melafazkan ‘Keluhuran Perlembagaan’, kami sangka kebanyakan dari mereka sebenarnya tidak tahu apa maksud ‘keluhuran’ itu. Bagaimana kita hendak melindungi dan menghormati perlembagaan Malaysia sekiranya kita tidak memahami maksud sebenar ‘keluhuran’ itu sendiri?
kampunghouse 
anon
December 18, 2006
This is the most boring blog i ever. I don’t even know how i got here. Do the whole world a favor and stop writing. Please, i am begging you.
kampunghouse
December 18, 2006
You don’t have to beg, just asking politely will do. Now c’mon, get up from your knees…it’s bad for the legs
shalini
December 18, 2006
hahahah!!!!
I, on the other hand, find this blog interesting. I am not going to beg, but do keep writing.
cheers!!
Sollihein
September 4, 2008
Malay, like any living language in the world today, is evolving, and language evolution always includes coining of new terms, be it from borrowed words modified to suit the language, or from native words put together to give them a new meaning. This is essential for a language’s survival. A language lives as long as it serves its purpose of conveying the message of its speakers. It will be out of use and become extinct when this is not met.
Unfortunately for Malay, its evolution is rather ‘delayed’ compared to English. Imagine in the time of Shakespeare, when some words that we know today were being coined or used for the very first time, and when literacy among all speakers was lower (I assume), surely some if not most of the words were unheard of, and people may not have understood them, for example words coined from latin or french. However, after years of constant usage, strengthened by a rich literary culture of prose and poetry and what not, the words became familiar.
What I’m saying is, it’s not wrong to change or tweak the language a little here and there. What is wrong is our attitude to it. we are at fault for not striving to understand our own language. English wouldn’t be the language it is today had it not scavenged words from every other language there is in the world. The speakers make full use of what these languages have to offer without prejudice, suiting them to their grammar and making them their own. and thus the language has evolved. i see nothing wrong with that.
kampunghouse
September 7, 2008
That’s the most insightful comment we’ve had all year! Thanks for coming in for a visit. It gets so lonely sometimes…
You are absolutely right. The great thing about English is its versatility and openness in accepting words from other languages and moulding it into a word that’s its own.
But somehow, despite acknowledging this, we would prefer if the Malay language rely less on borrowing English terms..it just seems like such a lazy thing to do. Maybe we could borrow words from other languages that share closer roots with our language? We’re ashamed to admit it but deep down, when it comes to our mother tongue we’re conservative purists! The world would do better with more people like you and less of us 😉
Sollihein
November 21, 2008
Hmmm I don’t know. I used to be a purist and I used to (and still do) hate it when people use words like realiti instead of kenyataan or hakikat. That said, I still can’t get over new terms like muat turun. It sounds so un-Malay in its meaning even if both words used are definitely Malay. I guess what I’d like to see is people inventing/coining, choosing and using words with wisdom. You have to get the feel for the language to be able to use words that convey the message well. I’m all about being prescriptive – letting the language be determined by its users. But there has to be some sort of control otherwise the language will go haywire. That’s why we need DBP. And I agree with looking elsewhere for new words instead of heavily relying on English. If one looks closely in Kamus Dewan there are many words with specific meaning that we don’t use, and it is up to us to find those words. 10 years ago you don’t see ‘teruja’ anywhere on tv, but it is very common now (even though uja actually has a slightly different meaning that our common understanding of ‘being excited’, but hey, languages evolve).
siti hamimah
January 11, 2011
he was anxious while waiting for the interview.
mas
January 14, 2011
aman puri @ puri apakah maksdunye
kampunghouse
January 21, 2011
Puri dalam bahasa Sanskrit bermaksud kota ataupun bandar. Apabila curiga, gunakanlah google dan wikipedia!
syed pulut
October 3, 2011
gua sebenarnya tengah cari maksud keluhuran,tiba-tiba jumpa blog lu nie..anyway,this is a piece of writing and a world worth having,keep on dude
mujahidah
March 2, 2015
interesting haa..tq..keep it up